Tuesday, 16 September 2014

COSON: Nigeria’s Private Copying Levy Scheme "gathering dust"

You don't need to tell Afro Leo that dust is a ubiquitous part of life! Back in 2012, Afro-IP enthusiastically covered
the news about Nigeria’s decision to introduce a private copying (or copyright) levy scheme
– a post which generated readers’ comments e.g. here
and elsewhere.
Today, this Leo can update you that the scheme hasn't yet cleared the final hurdle to
become operational.

According to COSON’s Chairman, Chief
Tony Okoroji, the documents for the scheme can be found in a cabinet at the offices of the Federal
Ministry of Finance (“FMF”) waiting for approval. [The ever-sympathetic Afro Leo says: at times, on matters of public interest, one might have no other viable option than to go public in order to get one’s voice heard or to influence another]

“…the Nigerian music industry is aware that
the order to activate the Private Copy Levy has since been made by the
Attorney-General of the Federation & Minister of Justice, Mr. Muhammed
Bello Adoke and published in the Federal Gazette. The Nigerian Copyright
Commission has held several public consultations on the levy and the
stakeholders have since looked forward to the commencement of the scheme. [Afro Leo is assuming that FMF folks were invited. In any case, please don't lose faith!]

Unfortunately, for some inexplicable reason, the documents seeking the approval
of the Finance Minister to activate the scheme remain trapped in some files in
the office of the Director of Fiscal Policy in the Federal Ministry of Finance
while the industry meant to benefit from it is suffocating.” [Basically, COSON is laying responsibility for the birth or death of the levy
scheme at the Minister’s door]

“…if the Honourable Minister has any questions
on the scheme, we are ready to provide the answers. We believe that within a
few minutes, this scheme which will provide some succour not just for the music
industry but also for the movie and literary industries should be given an
opportunity to make progress.”[Hopefully, the Minister can find some time, in her packed diary, to review and put forward questions]

Commentary

Digressing for a moment. Last July, Afro-IP reported
that the UK won’t be introducing a private copying levy as part of its
copyright reforms. Essentially, the UK Government’s view was that levies “…are
inefficient, bureaucratic and unfair, and disadvantage people who pay for
content.” [Afro Leo believes that there is nothing wrong
with having a private copying levy scheme, provided that it
is transparent, fair
and balanced to all concerned] As mentioned in the 2012 post, this Leo is still pondering how Nigeria
came up with its levy scheme: was it based on an IP policy or did it just
emerge like that? No need to guess because Caroline’s A-Z series will soon tell us if Nigeria has an IP policy (draft or otherwise). [Afro-Leo,
a big fan of evidence-based policies with built-in review plan, mentions that
there is a private use exception in Nigeria’s copyright law]

COSON’s news article also mooted the idea of government funding
for Nigeria’s music industry - as seen in the movie industry through initiatives
such as Project ACT-Nollywood.
(On which see previous Afro-IP musings on Nollywood here,
here,
here,
here
and here) You see: the Nigerian Government has inadvertently opened the floodgates! Well, that's a subject for another post.

Circling back to our main story, this Leo suspects that the
reason for the current predicament might be because the FMF and Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) weren't on the same page from the start, or that lines of communication have broken down along the way. However, one would
be forgiven to think (or to have expected) that folks at the FMF were aware and satisfied with the details
of the levy scheme to the extent that it would only become a matter of rubber-stamping the
Copyright (Levy of Materials) Order 2012. All suppositions!

Oh well, let's hope that the nice folks at the FMF can now decide to favourably make use of the duster (unashamedly plugged above for Afro Leo) so that the levy scheme can come to fruition to (again, hopefully) do what it's known for: compensating rightholders.

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Afro-IP was voted top 25 foreign and international legal blogs by LexisNexis, is listed on Managing Intellectual Property's guide to IP blogs worldwide, is listed on IPKat's blogroll, was nominated on Nigerian Law Intellectual Property Watch's guide to African IP resources, was voted in the World's Best IP blogs by BIP Counsels and in 2017 in the Top 100 IP Blogs on the Planet!